Chicago, IL
(note: this [La Salle Hotel, Bryan TX] is the first reliable connection I've had in a few days, so I'll hopefully be up to date before we bust up outs...)
Damn you Chicago, for being so damn cold. Were you just a little farther south...
Awesome as Brian and Katja's house was, sleeping on floors never works well for me; something to do with having zero of my own personal padding to keep my hips from grinding into the floor all damn night. So we loaded my own personal effects into the van on our way to the venue, so as to relocate me to Dave & Jean's on the promise of an air mattress.
darkroom is awesome. That's all there is to it. Matter of personal preference of course, but for me at least the ambiance was unparralleled thus far. Which isn't nearly enough to carry a club of course but then the sound guy showed up and within half an hour Donna was trying to steal him for the rest of our tour. Not only getting Bella and Ego through really good soundchecks so fast, but the willingness to work with Versailles when their X3 was having DI issues.
And there was vegan pizza. Can not overlook the magic of vegan pizza.
Was the turnout less than ideal? Sure, but then we'd also cut into our own audience the night before. But God damn if all of us didn't straight bring it. And with Andy having progressed from sleep-until-I'm-on to hide-in-the-back-until-I'm-on, it was still an improvement. Better and better, for the the time being at least.
Staying at the other house was a bit more comfortable even with the "after party" going on of which I'd not been warned. And the next morning we were taking to the best dinner on the road thus far.
But something else entirely really stands out: after a gradually growing suspicion that this was the case, it turned out that the Dave hosting us and promoting the show was a co-owner of WTII Records, one of the several labels that had been sent a Tacit Act EP and a top (if not *the* top) prospect in my head. After idle chatter had led to what all else I did with my time when not being a bass "player", he handed me a card and asked me to get in touch. And if you think I'm not traveling with a handful of Tacit Act EPs just in case of something like this, well, you just don't know me.
* * * *
The following day off was supposed to be uneventful, but then we also weren't supposed to blow a tire out in the rain either. So that particular protracted 8-hour drive ended up not even feeling like a day off but we made it to Kansas City just fine, with more than enough time to spare...
Damn you Chicago, for being so damn cold. Were you just a little farther south...
Awesome as Brian and Katja's house was, sleeping on floors never works well for me; something to do with having zero of my own personal padding to keep my hips from grinding into the floor all damn night. So we loaded my own personal effects into the van on our way to the venue, so as to relocate me to Dave & Jean's on the promise of an air mattress.
darkroom is awesome. That's all there is to it. Matter of personal preference of course, but for me at least the ambiance was unparralleled thus far. Which isn't nearly enough to carry a club of course but then the sound guy showed up and within half an hour Donna was trying to steal him for the rest of our tour. Not only getting Bella and Ego through really good soundchecks so fast, but the willingness to work with Versailles when their X3 was having DI issues.
And there was vegan pizza. Can not overlook the magic of vegan pizza.
Was the turnout less than ideal? Sure, but then we'd also cut into our own audience the night before. But God damn if all of us didn't straight bring it. And with Andy having progressed from sleep-until-I'm-on to hide-in-the-back-until-I'm-on, it was still an improvement. Better and better, for the the time being at least.
Staying at the other house was a bit more comfortable even with the "after party" going on of which I'd not been warned. And the next morning we were taking to the best dinner on the road thus far.
But something else entirely really stands out: after a gradually growing suspicion that this was the case, it turned out that the Dave hosting us and promoting the show was a co-owner of WTII Records, one of the several labels that had been sent a Tacit Act EP and a top (if not *the* top) prospect in my head. After idle chatter had led to what all else I did with my time when not being a bass "player", he handed me a card and asked me to get in touch. And if you think I'm not traveling with a handful of Tacit Act EPs just in case of something like this, well, you just don't know me.
* * * *
The following day off was supposed to be uneventful, but then we also weren't supposed to blow a tire out in the rain either. So that particular protracted 8-hour drive ended up not even feeling like a day off but we made it to Kansas City just fine, with more than enough time to spare...